The Culture Jasoos

Only the Monkeys Are Free in Eeb Allay Ooo! (Now on Netflix)

Episode Summary

Eeb Allay Ooo is a subtly savage and well-observed look at the indignities suffered by Anjani — a monkey chaser employed by the Government of India. It is less a biting satire and more a humanist comedy that makes you both laugh and wince in recognition of how shitty India can be for people who don't have power of any kind. Festival fav now streaming on Netflix in India with English Subtitles. Directed by debutant Prateek Vats.

Episode Notes

If you liked Eeb Allay Ooo, you may enjoy 'A Long Way Home' (Brazilian charming film about Dengue mosquito safai karmacharis, now streaming on Mubi India ), Love and Shukla ( about a sweet, migrant newly married auto driver and his wife in a chawl in Mumbai, now on Netflix) and the very excellent I, Daniel Blake (by British master filmmaker Ken Loach on Netflix)

If you like gritty films about the people on the margins of society in Indian metros, watch Titli and Binnu Ka Sapna (Kanu Behl)

Watch Shashi Bhushan in Welcome Home (Very dark, very violent thriller on Sony Liv)

Watch Shardul Bharadwaj in Bhosle (Sony Liv)

Watch Saumyananda Sahi's documentaries Chikka Putta and Have You Seen the Arana? (Cinetographer credit)

Episode Transcription

Eeb Allay Ooo

I have been looking forward to watching this film that has been praised for being a sharp satire. Well I am happy to report that while the film is certainly worth watching for its extraordinarily naturalistic performances, its laugh out loud moments, and for the way it captures Delhi on camera - I think that it is less a biting satire and more a humanist sort of film, that endears you to the struggles of people we normally may not pay attention to.
So here is my quick analysis of the strengths and failings of this film.
What works for me is the outlook and tonality of the film. It is Indian, it is clever but the makers never get carried away with the idea of making a clever film. At the heart of it what shines through is the sincerity of its observations, and the earnestness of its performers.
So, for some context, Eeb Alley Ooo is a story about a sweet, likeable chap, Anjani who gets saddled with a job he neither wants nor knows how to do. He is someone who has the very unenviable job of chasing away ferocious monkeys in the Rashtrapati Bhavan area of Delhi. And against such a grand backdrop, Anjani’s life and the indignity of his almost comical job becomes all the more apparent to viewers.
Ajani really earns our affection, and we really begin to care for him, because despite ourselves, we can empathise with him. And that’s what makes the film slightly uncomfortable for us, because the more we empathise with him the harder we find it to laugh at him.
And the filmmakers, Prateek Vats and writer Shubham - all FTII products - exploit this tension very beautifully. And I think that is what makes this film powerful and heartbreaking. For me it wasn’t so much a clever, tongue-in-cheek satire, it was more a deeply felt comedy of life itself. How many people in India live such darridar lives, how many insults must they suffer silently...as a viewer you become sensitive to injustice on the micro level - and those sort of scenes are captured beautifully well.
And that is probably what first time filmmaker Prateek Vats, intended. Because he has said that he was very moved by Ken Loach’s I, Daniel Blake, which is an excellent film - available on Netflix you must watch. Ken Loach is a british filmmaker who is known for making humanist films about regular british folks, and for his social commentaries that make you laugh and cry at the same time.
So, Eeb Allay Ooo is a film that belongs more to that humanist comedy territory. Whereas I think amongst Indian films, Court is a more biting, angry satire.
This is made possible of course by the absolutely truthful cinematography of Saumyananda Sahi. I must confess I am a Soumyananda Sahi fangirl and have been for many years. I liked his debut film Chikka Putta which is such a beautifully shot film about a school somewhere in the rural Karnataka, you will fall for it even if you don’t like kids or schools. He has shot, Have you seen the Arana, which is another excellent documentary about the perils of industrial scale change in Kerala. So he is no stranger to shooting ridiculously beautiful frames, but his work in this film is distilled, it's gone past even that initial beautiful showiness, and has matured into something finer, and I loved the way he captures both the beauty and squalor of Delhi. Titli did it too but Titli was grittier and darker.
The writing is also fineeee. What naturalistic dialogues and what great delivery. I literally felt like every character belonged on screen. For instance, there is one doctorni who casually scorns her patients in a very upper class educated, tum sab ganwar log apni biwi ko peet’te hoge way - what brilliant dialogue delivery when she intimidates Anjani's brother in law and pregnant sister. There is a Sardar cop who intimidates Anjani when he comes to ask for his salary. And another brilliant scene - and as the film goes on, you realise that every relationship is defined by casual violence and absolute disregard. In this strata of society, nobody gets any favours, everyone is sort of rendered uniform by their relative poverty, and everyone is under someone else, it's like a human centipede level ass licking that will get you ahead, everyone is scared of someone above them...so that sort of systemic power imbalance is captured beautifully in the film. And it does make you sad to realise that we are all part of this system, marked by exploitation and corruption. What was refreshing to me was that the film conveys all of this in a fairly subtle way. And that poor people are humanised and not demonised. It is very easy to imagine a character like Anjani turning to violence, or his brother in law beating his pregnant wife, or some rape, murder, incest, daru baazi, ladki baazi happening - but that is more Kanu Behl’s world. So it is refreshing that poor people are depicted on film without crime or violence being the key note in the storyline. Another film that does this very well is Love and Shukla, the hero in that film too is absolutely lovable and that film too captures the lack of agency and marginalization of people who work to keep our cities running. Incidentally, that film too is about an auto driver who is a migrant, and Anjani too is of course a migrant from Bihar - equally vulnerable in Delhi. I must confess that I realised how cluelessly elite I was because up until a point i didn't fully believe that a person like Anjani wouldn’t get any job whatsoever, but sometimes you have to try hard to put yourself in the shoes of someone who has a phone but very little agency, he can’t read English, he doesn’t have a bike he can't just join Myntra...or Swiggy as a delivery person...so the film works because it captures the helplessness of people who can fall through the cracks - who remain untouched by neoliberal ideas of progress and development.
A last word about the performances, Shardul Bharadwaj excelled, he was in Bhonsle but I stopped watching that impossibly slow boring film after 1 WHOLE hour of committing to it.
SHASHI BHUSHAN - Welcome Home is a chilling dark film that was so unrelentingly disgustingly dark and violent, don’t get me wrong I liked that film a lot but it depressed me for like 8 hours after I watched it. The same dude acts in this film as well. So obviously the actor has range. And I also liked the female characters. The girlfriend is gutsy, believable and strong. And subtle. She is underplayed beautifully by Naina Sareen - Not like Alia Bhatt in Gully Boy. Haha she is believable gritty.
And of course, lest we forget the film is inspired by a true job description. Mahender Nath is a real life monkey chaser And I found his performance and the way his role has been captured on film to be truly touching and sincere - and when Anjani says in one scene of the film that Mahender aap jab woh awaz nikalte ho na, Eeb Alley Ooo ki to mujhe lagta hain aap artist ho. I felt that.
So overall, the film works because it is earnest - and respectful of the people - and by that I mean poor people - it doesn't show them as pitiable characters, it shows them are sincere people trying to better their lives and stuck in inevitable situations - it is dignified. and it is not trying to pander to outsiders. never tries to play UP poverty or showcase characters as WORSE OFF as they are. In that sense, the film is not sensational and it doesn’t pander to international juries and doesn’t try to exploit India visually. That I liked a lot. I also liked how it sort of plays with elements of surrealism and gets away with it, in a manner of speaking. I liked the sort of balance of documentary style shooting and the sort of slight insanity of some sequences - it wasn’t pretentiously done or distracting.
What I didn't like about the film is that I felt it was a little too long, it began to sort of drag in between, I struggled to stay interested in Anjani’s life and his tribulations when they kept going off in different directions and I felt that the Brother In Law and Sister part was sort of unmotivated, I didn't quite understand what the brother in law's life struggles were much, despite great performances, that part of the plot seemed to be less well thought out and more like patchwork. So yeah, 20 -25 minute shorter and I think Eeb Allay Ooo would have been much more compelling. So I hope you enjoyed listening to my take on this festival circuit winner and latest release on Netflix. Slide into my DMs on TheCultureJasoos and tell me what you thought of my opinion. I seem to be talking a lot about new releases, I do want to diversify and maybe discuss other categories of films - which may not be really so recent but are worth watching, and bring you more episodes like my Sadhguru takedown so watch this space. Thanks for listening, this is me Preeti Prakash signing off! Peace!